Richard de Billingford

{{short description|British academic}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

Richard de Billingford (died 1432){{cite book|title=Masters' History of the College of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin Mary in the University Cambridge|publisher=John Smith, Printer to the University|author=John Lamb|year=1831|chapter=Richard de Billingford D.D.|url=https://archive.org/details/MastersHistoryOfTheCollegeOfCorpusChristi|page=[https://archive.org/details/MastersHistoryOfTheCollegeOfCorpusChristi/page/n80 62]}} was Chancellor of the University of Cambridge,{{cite book|title=The universities. Le Keux's Memorials of Cambridge|author1=Thomas Wright |author2=Harry Longueville Jones |volume=1|chapter=Corpus Christi College|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x_oGAAAAQAAJ|publisher=Tilt and Bogue, Fleet Street|year=1841}} holding the position three times, from 1400–1402, 1406-1413 and in 1432.{{cite book|title=The historical register of the University of Cambridge, being a supplement to the Calendar with a record of University offices, honours and distinctions to the year 1910|editor=J.R. Tanner|year=1917|publisher=Cambridge University Press|url=https://archive.org/details/1910historicalreg00univuoft/page/16}}

From 1398 to 1432 he was also Master of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he endowed a loan chest in which college members could deposit valuable objects as security for loans taken from the chest which would be sold if the loan was not repaid. The extant chest is kept in the Parker Library, Corpus Christi College.{{Cite web |url=https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/the-billingford-hutch-and-the-moonwort-fern-a-medieval-mystery-solved |title=The Billingford Hutch and the moonwort fern – a medieval mystery solved |date=2017-12-10 |website=University of Cambridge |language=en |access-date=2019-04-02}} He was buried in St Bene't's Church, which was formerly used as the college chapel.

In 1413 as Chancellor he was sent by Henry V to Rome during the Western Schism as part of a delegation to tell the two Popes that unless one would step down, the King would recognise neither.{{cite book|title=Annals of Cambridge Volume 1|author=Charles Henry Cooper|year=1842|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S5kKAQAAIAAJ}}